New SGA President Baker pushes diversity education

An election three years in the making, the student body of UMHB elected junior political science pre-law and speech communication major Tyler Baker as its president for the upcoming 2018-2019 year.
Since his election as freshman class president during the fall semester of 2015, Baker has planned his run for student body president extensively.
“I got to Student Government and I just said, ‘I want to be student body president. I see myself doing that,”’ Baker said.
Running on many platforms, one of which being the issue of diversity on campus, Baker hopes to impact the community and leave a positive legacy for the class he has been chosen to lead.
Running against junior business management major Daniel Martinez, Baker ran a tough campaign.
“Campaigning against Tyler is a task. He is very active in any campaign of his,” Martinez, said.
“I noticed that my freshman year when he was running for class president. This race was no different. He was very active and prepared. So it was difficult, but it did cause me to channel my creativity and expand on it. This led to me make videos and push harder on social media. I do support Tyler in his presidency. He will do great in this role, as he has done great in every role he has served thus far.”

Junior SGA Vice President Tyler Baker smiles at a joke that an SGA senator made during the SGA meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27 in the conference room on the third floor of Bawcom Student Union.

Baker began his climb to the top when first deciding that he wanted to be president of the student body one day, and join the Student Government Association on campus. After a successful run as freshman class president, he then continued on to working as sophomore class president and junior class vice president.
Balancing school with the multiple clubs and associations he is a part of, Baker makes sure to prioritize his time. While SGA is a close second, he always makes sure that his school work remains his top priority.
“SGA has really been my life; it’s been something I’ve been so passionate about. It’s definitely a rewarding program to be a part of. What you put into it you definitely get out,” Baker said. “For example, my roommate and best friend is Sam Kinnin and I met him through SGA. He served on the sophomore class while I was sophomore class president, and we both got invited to a conference called Castle that UMHB attends. We just got really close on that trip, so yeah SGA has impacted my life in so many ways.”
One of the big changes the new president hopes to implement at the university is increasing education about the diversity of our campus community. Having been greatly influenced and personally moved by a “diversity day” event held in one of his classes, he wants to encourage other classes to host such days and increase diversity in the community. In his class, the topic also merged with that of one for foreign exchange students. Through that effort, Baker felt as though he was able to learn more about various cultures, religions, and people as a whole that make up his UMHB student body.
“I’ve ran on a lot of platform ideas, but one of the main ones was Diversity.” said Baker. “I didn’t learn until recently that one of the biggest complaints for seniors exiting UMHB is a lack of campus diversity. Just statistically speaking, that’s one of the largest things UMHB students are not satisfied with. It’s something that kind of just been pressed on my heart. It’s interesting to hear how everyone defines diversity differently. That’s something we all agreed could be improved. The way that we improve that, in my mind, is talking about it, and educating people on it. I would like to get more diversity days across campus and have students able to connect with each other better. Change isn’t something that happens when you’re comfortable, it’s something that happens when you step outside of your regular Eco chamber.”
Hoping to continue his education after UMHB with Law School, Baker will be taking the LSAT exam this upcoming September 2018. Baker strives to leave a good mark on this campus through his leadership with SGA, and has anticipated this role for many years. Having prepared for this for years, our crusader community is excited to see what will become of the legacy that is Tyler Baker.

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Owned and published by UMHB, The Bells is a biweekly publication. We applaud diversity, allowing editorial statements to express the opinion of those listed in the byline.Opinions do not necessarily reflect the adviser’s, staff’s and/or the university’s opinion.Read more »

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The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor prepares students for leadership, service, and faith-informed discernment in a global society.